Russian media and the Arab Spring on the occasion of its tenth anniversary

In recent days, Russian media have not stayed away from the tenth anniversary of the launch of the< printemps arabe >> in Tunisia at the end of 2010, while addressing the conditions of a number of Arab countries a decade after these crucial events and dealing with the repercussions of this unprecedented Arab movement. However, the Russian media have a perspective on the revolutions of the Arab peoples: their opposition.

Last Sunday’s “Harvest of the Week” program on Gazprom Media-affiliated NTV featured a report titled “Migrants, Wars and Terrorist Attacks: What Did the Arab Spring Have?”, In which the channel recalled that the the spark of the “Arab Spring” had begun. From the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid after the young man, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire by refusal of arbitrary police, without anyone expecting at the time that this would lead to a full wave uprisings in North Africa and a fire that led to the fall of tyrants, starting with the Tunisian Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the Egyptian Hosni Mubarak. And the Libyan colonel Muammar Kadhafi.

Focus on the negative repercussions of the post-Arab Spring revolutions

Nonetheless, the report was dominated by a critical and offensive tone, which focused on highlighting the negative repercussions of post-“Arab Spring” revolutions, such as “the influx of refugees into Europe, the rise of radical Islamists, the continuing wars in Libya, Syria and Yemen, and the growing role of outside forces in the region ”. The report included an intervention by former British Ambassador to Syria and Bahrain, Peter Ford, who said: “Who will it benefit from?” The Secretary General of the League of Arab States speaks frankly about it today. Among them, Israel and Iran, which settle their scores in Syria and Yemen, are fighting for their interests in their lands. But the biggest of them (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan, who has been sneaking around to announce his imperial ambitions, after behaving completely differently before this spring. ”

For her part, the Middle East editor of the Russian newspaper “Kommersant”, Mariana Belinkaya, estimated that the importance of the date of December 17, 2010 for the Arab and non-Arab worlds is no less than the events of December 28. June 1914, when the assassination of the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary was formed. Franz Ferdinand, the pretext for the outbreak of the First World War which led to the collapse of some empires. In an article titled “Dare to go to the field” published on Saturday, Belinkaya stressed that the “Arab Spring” has not led in his countries to a radical change of the elites, to a victory over corruption, to an improvement of the socio-economic situation, or an increase in freedoms.

Although the author of the article acknowledged that Tunisia was the luckiest model for the transfer of power during the “Arab Spring”, she said that “even this country has not been able to restore economic stability in a context of high unemployment rate of 18% among the total working population and 36% among young people ”. . I also drew attention to my experience of maintaining the same authority in Bahrain following “the cessation of massive Shiite protests thanks to the entry of forces from the Gulf Cooperation Council”, and in Syria to the following Iranian and Russian support for their ally, Bashar al-Assad, “despite Arab countries, Turkey and the West doing all they could to bring down his government”.

Moscow has treated the “Arab Spring” with apathy and suspicion since its inception, especially as these revolutions were followed by a wave of protests in Russia itself, calling for fair parliamentary elections and the rejection of Vladimir Putin’s return. to the presidency in 2012 after serving as Prime Minister for four years.

However, the events that followed the revolutions in the Arab world led to a possible strengthening of Russia’s influence in the region, especially after the start of its direct military intervention in Syria on September 30, 2015 and its increased role. in the Libyan crisis and other burning regional issues.